dPronto, set up by ex-CEO of Airtel Enterprise Rajiv Sharma, provides jobs to underprivileged youths from rural India as part of its Empower Pragati programme - a private sector social enterprise focused on skilling.

Today, e-commerce logistics, including last mile logistics, are critical to the online retail market, and the size of the e-commerce industry is expected reach $5.1 billion by 2020. Sharma said currently there are about two lakh bikers delivering products across the country and the size of the market is expected to grow 10 times by 2020. "And so will the requirement of delivery boys. We see this as the time to bring in new supply in the form of skilled delivery boys. In the next 18 months, we will train 10,000 of them."

Last-mile delivery constitutes 40% of e-commerce logistics and is also expected to grow at a CAGR of 48 per cent to reach $2.1 billion by 2020. This tie-up with dPronto gives companies such as Flipkart access to Empower Pragati’s network of 600 centres that trains and supplies logistics staff, who can support Flipkart in its last-mile delivery.

The course, which covers national occupational standards for the role of delivery executives, includes soft skills as well as domain knowledge and how to have a healthy lifestyle. Neeraj Agarwal, senior director, delivery operations at Flipkart.com, added that the company wanted to support the social objective of transforming lives of the less privileged youth through respectable jobs. A job like this can pay a fresher anywhere upwards of Rs 10,500 per month and can go up to Rs 17,000 including benefits and fuel costs.

A majority of dPronto’s business comes from its PPP with the NSDC, 10% from providing companies with customised training modules for their delivery boys, and the rest from a paid training programme it offers to those who want to finance it themselves. For a company like dPronto, it costs anywhere between Rs 25 and Rs 30 to make a delivery, and the company will partner with dPronto in 80 cities.